Tag: Classical Architecture

  • Moreland-Hoffstot House, Shadyside

    Putti on the porch roof of the Moreland-Hoffstot House

    If you wanted your house to convey the message “I’m rich ppttttttthhht,” then Paul Irwin was the architect to hire. This Renaissance palace uses every trick in the architect’s vocabulary to tell the world that a millionaire lives here, and he is richer than you are. It was built in 1914 on the Fifth Avenue Millionaires’ Row, where, although it is not the biggest of the surviving mansions, it somehow manages to look like the most expensive.

    Moreland-Hoffstot House
    Moreland-Hoffstot House
    Porch
    Porch roof with putti
    Urn
    West side of the house
    Moreland-Hoffstot House
    Kodak EasyShare Z981; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.
  • Ohio Valley Trust Company, Coraopolis

    As seen by a Kodak Pony 135 camera with Efke KB 25 film. The film expired years ago—or rather the printed expiration date was years ago, but the film lives on. Once this roll (which started at 30.5 meters) is gone, however, there is no more. The creaky old Efke factory in Croatia closed down in 2012 on account of “a fatal breakdown in machinery.” The current incarnation of ADOX picked up the formula for Efke’s ISO 100 film, but not this slower film. It’s a pity, because this film produced negatives with fine grain and a wide range of tones, and it was also cheap.

    We also have pictures of the Ohio Valley Trust Company building in color.

  • The Imperial Bank

    The Imperial Bank of Imperial, Pennsylvania

    The bank for the little mining town of Imperial occupied a building that accomplished its architectural mission perfectly. It was small, but it gave the impression of being respectable and substantial—a place where your money would be safe.

    Front of the bank
    Inscription: The Imperial Bank
    Front entrance
    The Imperial Bank
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
  • Carnegie Lecture Hall

    Carnegie Lecture Hall

    The Carnegie Lecture Hall is designed to put a large number of people close enough to hear a single lecturer. It was filled to capacity today with people who came to hear poetry, which makes the literate think good thoughts about Pittsburgh. The International Poetry Forum is back after fifteen years of silence, and the first poet to speak was its founder, Samuel Hazo, who at 96 years old seems to be aging backwards.

    Inside the Lecture Hall

    The interior of the hall as it was filling up.

    Carnegie Lecture Hall
  • Coraopolis Junior High School

    Coraopolis Junior High School

    Edward Stotz, who also designed Fifth Avenue High School and Schenley High School (the country’s first million-dollar high school), was the architect of this staid and respectable school, now turned into apartments.

    “Ridgeview” Apt’s 1130

    The inscription over the door was hand-painted by someone with a distinctive idea of quotation marks.

    Entrance
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.
    Side of the school
    Coraopolis Junior High School
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
  • Highland Building, East Liberty

    Highland Building
    Samsung Galaxy A15 5G. This picture is more than 13 megabytes if you enlarge it; be careful on a metered connection.

    Designed by Daniel Burnham, this is the only skyscraper left in East Liberty; another one, designed by Frederick Osterling, was demolished decades ago when the neighborhood’s fortunes were sinking. Now the neighborhood is once again bustling, and the Highland Building, after years of abandonment, is beautifully restored.

  • St. Francis de Sales School, McKees Rocks

    Inscription: St. Francis de Sales School
    This composite picture is big; enlarge it to appreciate the variety of classical ornament.

    Unlike the adjacent church, St. Francis de Sales School found a new use when it closed, and it is still maintained. The alterations were heavy and unsympathetic, but we can still see enough of the original design to imagine the rest. The original part of the school was built in 1909; it appears to have been expanded later. This is the Margaret Street end, with the original inscription.

    St. Francis de Sales School
    St. Francis de Sales School

    This end of the school appears to be a later expansion.

    Belfry

    The open belfry in this entrance tower, and the entrance below it, suggest some Art Nouveau influence.

    St. Francis de Sales School
    St. Francis de Sales School
    Sony Alpha 3000 with 7Artisans f/1.4 35mm lens; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
  • Welcome to the Library

    Free to the People

    There is often a greeter standing in the lobby of the main Carnegie Library in Oakland to say “Welcome to the Library” to every patron who walks through the door. But even when the greeter isn’t greeting, the building itself conveys the same message.

    Bronze door
    Lunette
    Vestibule

    Ornate light fixtures hang in the vestibule and lobby.

    Light fixtures
    Lobby
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.
  • Coraopolis Savings and Trust Company

    Coraopolis Savings and Trust Company

    Press C. Dowler, prolific architect of schools, banks, and telephone exchanges, designed this solid-looking classical bank, and the Pittsburgh Daily Post tells us that the opening (October 10, 1021) was a gala occasion.

    Newspaper article about the opening of the bank
    Front of the bank

    The building no longer houses a bank, but almost nothing about the exterior has changed since that opening day, except that the big windows may not originally have been filled in with glass block.

    Side of the building

    A look down the Mill Street side of the bank, with the Ohio Valley Trust Company building in the background.

    Basement entrance

    Mill Street does not meet Fifth Avenue at exactly a right angle, which leaves room for this curious triangular pit with a basement entrance.

    Lantern

    A lantern on the front of the building.

    Bank in the sunshine

    A picture on a sunny day.

    Cameras: Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Kodak EasyShare Z1285.

  • Berwyn, Delwood, Elmont Apartments, Shadyside

    Three apartment buildings in Shadyside

    Three apartment buildings on Holden Street at the corner of Summerlea Street. The Delwood has lost its cornice, but otherwise they look much the way they were drawn by Perry & Thomas, the prolific Chicago architects who gave us many apartment buildings in Shadyside and Squirrel Hill.